STAVROPOLEOS CHURCH

Stavropoleos is a little old church, very elegant, a monument of brincovenesque style, built in 1724 by the Greek monak Ioanikie, Bishop of Stavropole. It is a religious monument, but also an homage for the phanariot Prince Nicolae Mavrocordat. Above the imperial doors the onlooker discovers the princely bicephalous eagle. The decor is a mlange of anthropomorphe and zoomorphe elements. The characteristic of the framings is the stone-sculpted floral decoration, an element of the brancovenesque style.

In the second half of XIXth century, the medieval architectural ensembles from the central area of the city were destroyed. Stavropoleos Church is a survivor. Her existence in the urban structure, between the Old Court (Curtea Veche) and the Lipscani commercial street, is for everybody a surprise. The church was restored in 1904 by the leader of the Romanian School of Architecture: Ion Mincu (1852-1912).

There is a Stavropoleos series built by framing variation and by metonymical relations of the part whole type that allow it to emphasize the construction's elements. The attention is directed towards the stetting elements: caps, the medallions painted from the outside.